Second Night: Reinforce Drei
by Shad4c
Summary: Ranma/Nanoha X-over. A chance opening alters the fate of one. The chaos of night returns as dusk arrives and a player thought dead re-enters the game again in a new form.
1. Prologue

**Second Night: Reinforce Drei**

(_Nanoha/Ranma X-Over_)

**Disclaimer**- Both Nanoha and Ranma series belong to their respective copyright holders. Not me. This piece of fiction is done solely for entertainment and no profit is made from it in any form.

**Prologue**

**A Fork in Fates Path**

In another world a tearful moment on a snowy hilltop would be followed by the heroic 'death' of a being that wished to prevent itself from causing anymore suffering and a later rebirth as it returned to life, revived from its own ashes by its master without the shadow of evil that had blighted its existence for so long.

In Fates original plan the world would move on, a happy ending from which this particular darkness would never again be able to enter the lives of the people of the living world. However the lines of fate are a tangled weave and the slightest knock can send the world on a different course if given enough time to snowball.

I sometimes wonder if that would have been either for the better or the worse considering the string of events that have happened. Whether or not the events and the people in them would have been different and how it would have affected their lives and that of the world as we know it. I'm sure that somewhere in the vast multi-verse there is an answer to this question, beyond the bounds of known space. How could there not be?

I think it's for the best though, in my position how could I not after all?

If you think about it you might agree too. Why? With all the tragedy that was started with this single flap, why would it be a good thing?

Because in all this time I have only to think back to this one event and even in the most terrible of situations I draw courage and will for the memory.

Condensed into a single phrase I can sum it up to this.

'_I will Live!_'

A desire as simple and as complex as these three little words can change the path of the universe and can move the most difficult obstruction. It has pushed the weakest of us to heights never thought of and though it's usually tempered by nobler things, a distinction many would deny I could know existed I'm sure, it has always allowed me to push forward when all is lost.

How it all started was with the flap of the wings of a bird, the slightly quicker glance and the desire to cause chaos for a foe. Humans are like that after all.

_Extract from __**Memories of the Dawn**__, writing from Reinforce Drei (aka Ranma Saotome, Class SS Lost Logia[see datafile 22645, Book of Darkness], Sentinel Alliance Mobile Division 13)- TSAB, Infinity Library, Terminal 56 ._

**_(Nanoha)_ Earth, Unregistered Planet 87**

**Uminari City**

Snow drifted down gently as the overcast sky gave the city a dim yet gentle aura and the man wrapped his coat around himself tighter in order to protect himself a bit better from the cold. Grumbling internally to himself over having to freeze to death on a backwater unregistered planet the non-descript man continued to trudge along the path by the side of a large park.

Why he was here in a city where he could barely speak the language and on a planet that didn't even seem to have learned how to use the most basic of magic was something he didn't know, beyond that his really hot superior had told him to be here. Scoring some points there was something he really looked forwards to and if he could find out what the ever righteous Bureau was doing that required so much interest to be placed in this backwater... well that was a bonus.

Until he could find some sort of clue as to what had happened in the city earlier without calling down unnecessary attention he'd just try and enjoy the sights and maybe pick up a souvenir for his girlfriend.

While looking at the sign of a cafe and trying to decide whether it was worth trying to puzzle out the menu or simply waiting until he could get back to his hotel room and ordering something where he could at least guess at the contents the brown haired man heard the faint storm of birds flapping rapidly. Turning his head quickly, glad for the distraction from his stomach, the man saw a short haired girl in a wheelchair pushing herself as fast as she could into the park itself.

Faster then she should have been able to now that he looked he thought with a frown that turned to slightly widening eyes as he switched to his magical senses and noticed the slight jolt of magic from her hands every time that she touched the wheels of her chair, pushing then harder then she was actually doing so physically.

As the girl disappeared into the park he turned away from the cafe completely and casually began to follow the girl from a careful distance.

'Magic, even magic of such a tiny amount, so close to a magical battle with the Bureau in the area?' The man thought.

Either the girl was with the Bureau or she had something sufficiently important to do that it warranted the risk, whichever it was it was sure to be interesting and give him something to report to his superior when he returned. Even if the girl wasn't connected to the recent events the discovery of a new magic user was always of interest to the recruiters. He knew just the blond to talk to as well, maybe over dinner.

As the man mused he strolled along behind the fast moving girl and taking the time to absorb the brunets' magical signature with growing smugness. This girl was definitely a find, no D-class like him here, she was a C-class at least, maybe even B plus rank! The man smiled slightly as he imagined the commendations he'd get if he could point out a new high class mage, he might not even have to sleep on the couch anymore.

He was snapped out of his pleasant daydream of the future when he hit the foot of the hill that the girl was rapidly climbing. An aura of magical power hit him like a physical force, nearly causing him to stumble backwards with the condensed magic he was feeling. Taking a step backwards and then another forward his mood darkened as he realised that he had just stumbled across a containment ward when the feeling disappeared and the returned as he moved over an invisible line in the snow. Someone was doing some serious magic over here and they didn't want people knowing about it which in his experience were never a good thing. Looking up the hill he could see that the girl was still climbing at the same desperate pace as before, opening his senses carefully he took in the surrounding and judged whether or not he had tripped any sort of alarm before deciding on his next course of action.

Breaking into a run he slipped into the tree and began to climb the hill as stealthily as he was able to while keeping up a reasonable pace. When he finally reached the top he hid himself among the bushes a reasonable distance away and observed the ritual going on in the clearing itself while straining his ears to catch what he could of the conversation be held by the various percipients. He watched as the white haired woman within the magical array finished talking to the girl he had been following and made her way back to the book that was hovering in the centre of the array and he pulled a small device from his coats inner pocket, pointing it at the obviously magical book as his eyes focused on the four figures standing farthest away from him.

Looking back down at the small display on the device when it buzzed in his hand to get his attention away from the tall ponytailed woman among the four he almost jumped out of his hiding spot in surprise as the scanner registered a successful match on the books magical signature. Going on instinct as he watched the red eyed woman slowly return to the centre of the glowing white triangle only to stop and turn back to reassure the girl again when she cried out, the man pointed the scanner at the four and got the expected matches a few moments later.

The Wolkenritter!

Having confirmed this there was little doubt that the book was indeed the legendary Book of Darkness, a Lost Logia that had caused chaos across Bureau space for countless ages. The question was, why was it here and why were the Wolkenritter simply standing by? Why were they letting what was obviously a destructive array be used against it? Why wasn't the Book fighting against this? To many questions and obviously no time to get them answered as he watched the array finish being powered up.

There was only one course of action here.

The destruction of the Book would help the Bureau, so the Book couldn't be allowed to be destroyed. It was as simple as that, no matter the destruction the Logia might cause in the future anything that could slow the Bureaus expansion down was to be exploited and the Book of Darkness was something that could.

Focusing his magic he reached out to the array and carefully weakened the complex containment wards within in. He had no hope of fighting either of the mages capable of building or powering something like this let alone the damn Wolkenritter! What he could do however is weaken the hold the spell had on the book, give it an opening to escape before its destruction, if a slim one.

He prayed it worked.

Inside the glowing ritual circle the Tome of the Night Skies administrative program felt its essence being torn apart by the destructive magic that she was allowing to permeate its being. She gave a soft smile of contentment at being able to protect her master one last time even as she was saddened by having to hurt her in the process.

Off in the corner of her being the program could feel the new, barely formed, defence program begin to react to the destruction of there being. She continued to smile as her physical form finished dissolving in the knowledge that the hateful program could do nothing to stop this from finishing.

Its remaining awareness jolted as it felt the defence program suddenly expand and increase in power beyond anything it should be capable of doing. What had it done?

As it focused on the dying yet expanding program it came to a chilling realisation.

'A hidden backup drive!' The administrative program thought as knowledge that should no longer exist returned to it while the defence program turned its reinforced power on the array that was holding the Tome in its funeral place.

Desperately launching itself at the renegade program it attempted to hold it in place long enough for the magic to finish its job and erase the Tome from existence. A fierce mental battle erupted between the two sections of the Tome as one tried to prevent the other from allowing them to escape.

In the end the battle was decided by who lost the greatest amount of 'self' first. A few second of additional growth time, a few additional words of comfort before the end from a servant to its mistress and the balance was tipped. As the magic pulsed a final time and the Tome came apart, reverting to something far more benign the new defence program managed to rip the backup drive away from the rest of the Tome and performed a blind teleport through the sliver of weakened wards in the spells construction using nearly all of its remaining power.

Tumbling through time and space for an unknown amount of time the remains of the Book reached out across the swirling mass of inter-dimensional space for magic as the remnant traces of the spell continued to destroy it bit by bit.

Acting on as close to instinct that a device such as it could possess it flashed into existence in the nearest dimension with an above average magical signature and then proceeded to home in on the first powerful linker core it could locate. Screaming down at its target it came close to panic as it could when it felt the solidity of the signal begin to flux and fade. Slamming into the target as a bolt of brilliant white light it quickly assessed the situation while it bonded itself to the being.

The beings brain function had ceased and large amounts of damage had been suffered by its body, however the beings soul and most importantly its linker core and attendant ability to generate and control mana still resided in the body for the moment. Acting faster than any biological being could hope to the Book copied the fading traces of the beings mind as it used the last of its energy to dissolve the body and recreate a new one out of its remaining mana, causing a blinding light to radiate from the body covering the moment that it vanished only to be replaced by and identical version a moment later.

With this outburst of energy however the last of the defence programs protections fell and the magic of the ritual managed to destroy the final control element of the Belkan Tome leaving nothing but the copied mind of the bonded soul.

Groaning with the stiffness of his body a 13 year old Ranma Saotome unsteadily pulled himself upright.

"Boy! Are you alright!" The fat man that had rushed towards him cried out.

Frowning the young Saotome felt a breath of wind flow across him, causing him to look down before addressing the older that as he reached his side and crouched.

" Um, fine I think? Who are you and why the hell am I naked!?" Ranma said with a fuzzy mind.

**_(Ranma)_ Earth, Unregistered Planet 112**

_5 minutes previous_

The younger Saotome stood in the middle of an unused warehouse holding a pair of cables which lead around the back of a pile of boxes with his father's unattractive behind sticking out from around the corner of them.

"So Pops. What exactly is this for again? Why am I holding a pair of cables?" Ranma asked suspiciously as the latest insanity unfolded before him.

"Training of course." The older Saotome scoffed as he stood up and faced his son.

"I get that, what sort of training old man and why are we doing it here?" Ranma asked as he hefted the cables he was holding lightly to highlight his point.

"An old friend pointed out a glaring weakness in your defence son. So we're going to correct it with this training, trust me." Genma smiled widely causing Ranma to look at the cables with greater levels of nervousness.

"Perhaps this isn't a good idea Po..." The pigtailed boy tried to object.

"I won't let you chicken out boy! This is for the Art, switch ON!" Genma shouted as he pressed a button he had been hiding.

Electricity sparked as it surged through the wires and into the unknowing younger Saotome killing him and causing the body to drop to the floor in a heap. As the older Saotome began to move towards his fallen son a bolt of energy blasted through the ceiling and smashed into Ranma causing a flare that force Genma to shield his eyes from the light.

When his vision return the master of Anything Goes rushed towards his partly risen student.

"Boy! Are you alright!" He shouted in concern as Ranma focused on him.

" Um, fine I think? Who are you and why the hell am I naked!?" Genma heard Ranma say before he sighed in relief and clipped him around the head.

"Get up boy we have more training to do! And you need some new clothes!" Genma exclaimed as he dragged his son to his feet and marched towards where they'd left their backpacks.

"No really, who are you? Where are we?" Ranma said in confusion as his shattered mind slowly put itself back together.

Genma ignored him as he continued to drag his son away while deciding that the boy didn't really need to know how to survive a fight with a swarm of electric eels.

Authors Note:-

A hopeful return to writing though I'm unsure if I should leave it here or move it to the Nanoha section. For any that are interested this is the other version of FateBreaker that I was considering. Updates should hopefully be faster then normal.

Comments are always welcome on the story or anything you'd like to see. See you next time.

Shad4c


	2. Chapter 1

**Second Night: Reinforce Drei**

(_Nanoha/Ranma X-Over_)

**Disclaimer**- Both Nanoha and Ranma series belong to their respective copyright holders. Not me. This piece of fiction is done solely for entertainment and no profit is made from it in any form.

Timeline Note: The Ranma elements pick up near 3 years post prologue however the Nanoha elements are near 10 years post prologue (StrikerS period). The 2 times are the same; the book merely spent 7 years in limbo during its escape.

**Chapter 1**

**First Flicker**

'_How would I make use of Reinforce Drei if it was assigned to me as part of my forces during a battle? I take it that you mean Saotome when you say that, at least have the decency to use his name when you talk about him. In truth I view him as something of an out of control vacuum, turn him on, point him at the enemy and clear the area. Unless you're planning to send him up against the Yagami woman, then I would skip straight to running since he tends to take it personally when that happens.' _

Quote from General Herb (King of the Musk Dynasty, AA-Ranked Ki Adept/Combat Mage), 1st Corp, Sentinel Alliance, addressing Alliance officer cadets.

**Unregistered Planet 112 **

**Jusenkyo**

A pair of dirty figures slogged along the muddy track as it twisted through the mountain range along what was mostly likely the least travelled of routes in the region heading towards the latest, and unknown to the younger of the duo, last planned stop on their long training journey. A journey that had snaked its way across the length and width of Japan and even into the nearby countries of the Pacific Rim in search of the next glimmer of martial knowledge or mythic training grounds with which to improve their skills.

The pleasant if cold weather belayed the downtrodden mood of the pair, a mood which despite what might be common with others, had nothing to do with the fact that the younger had been forced to carry the older of the pair as they fled from a particularly persistent group of pursuers through the wilds of China in the pouring rain last night. Confident that they had finally lost the last of the varied irate shopkeepers and cranky monks for the time being they had changed direction and were now moving through the mystical valley of Jusenkyo and closing on the first of the pools which appeared to be the central feature of the landscape.

"Why are we here again Pops, it doesn't looks like it will give us a challenge. Didn't we do the pole balance training last month with those spears?" Ranma asked crankily as he walked behind his father and attempted to shake the latest layer of mud off of his thin footwear with little success.

"We were interrupted last time my boy! A martial artist must always strive to accomplish perfection, you can never train enough in the ways of the Art Ranma, I thought I taught you better then to ask stupid questions like that!" The larger of the two announced grandly as he did his best to strike a heroic pose while keeping up the brisk jogging pace the Saotomes had adopted since Ranma had dumped him on his ass at the end of the night.

The younger Saotome grumbled under his breath about stupidity obviously being infectious and fat old man starving hard working martial artists with their stupid ideas. The muttering was caught by Genmas survival sharpened ears as the he twisted partly around without breaking stride and pointed at his offspring accusingly.

"It wasn't me they were after that time boy! I warned up to stay away from anything you saw that caused your stomach to rumble, but you couldn't follow my instruction and just grab the scroll the monks had left as part of the training exercise! Oh to have such a dim witted son, Nodoka I have failed you!" the bolding master of the Anything Goes cried out overdramatically as Ranma fumed in the background.

"That wasn't my fault! I didn't even touch the stupid gem this time, you can't place the blame on me if the battery finally died or whatever. How old was that thing anyway, it had to have been about to go anyway." Ranma protested loudly in his defence before glaring at his father again as something occurred to him.

"Weren't those monks shouting something about a sacred scroll being stolen between baying for my blood and other bits. Whose fault would that be huh?!" The student of Anything Goes countered only to have it waved off airily by his father.

"Bah! They were just playing along with the training. I admit I've made one or two minor miscalculations in the past Ranma however I've never had an organisation form solely to hunt me down, that's one thing you surpass me with son. I'm so proud, my son has created his own organisation to be a rival, no simple martial artist rival is good enough for him." Genma said as he wiped away fake tears.

Ranma nearly tripped as one of his father's favourite taunts was brought into the argument, the only one he couldn't completely claim to be the old man's fault. Over the years of travelling and training Genma had racked up an impressive array of debts to various bars, restaurants and shops he had ripped off with eat and runs along with a line of angry dojo owners when he had skipped out on then carrying there precious technique scrolls. Things had settled into a routine until 3 years ago when Ranma discovered that he would drain magical doodads by touching them if he wasn't concentrating, at which point the Saotomes had found out the angry monks and hedge magicians were a hell of a lot more persistent and dangerous then random shopkeepers. It had gotten worse when said monks had found out about said shopkeepers and decided that the best way to bring down they targets was to join forces. As such the Anti Saotome Union, ASA for short, was born though Ranma tended to refer to them as the Asses. Because of them the Saotomes had become very good at running and hiding over the last 2 years given all the practice they had been getting.

"Damn it you old fart that's your fault too! If you hadn't ripped off all those people they wouldn't have that much money to come after us with!" Ranma protested again as he pointed back at his father.

"Pitiful excuses boy! Accept the truth like a martial artist!" Genma replied as he jumped up onto the first of the bamboo poles sticking out of the pools.

"Take that back!"

"Make me boy!"

The pair shouted at each other as Ranma joined his father on the poles and they prepared to engage each other.

As the two Saotomes began their daily ritual of attempting to beat each other into submission on top of the flimsy stretches of material and drench their opponent in the small pools of water below them a short pudgy man in a green Chinese uniform hurried across the area towards them.

"No sirs! Jusenkyo is no good place to train!" The man shouted at the two as he got closer.

"Sirs! You come down now, is not safe. Please stop!" He continued as the battling martial artists seemed to ignore him in favour of searching for an opening in their opponent's defences.

"Sloppy boy! I thought that I had a worthy heir not a pansy!" Genma mocked as he slipped a blow past the younger Saotomes defences and knocked Ranma into one of the other poles.

"It's not over yet you lazy drunk!" Ranma proclaimed as he bounced off of the pole and rapidly circled the more experience fighter.

"No! Come down now! You no know the danger, is very bad you fall in pools!" The man shouted again as he scrambled after the battling pair following the fight as it moved through the maze of pools.

The fight continued until Ranma was able to catch his father in mid air, kicking off nothingness without a brief flash of light from the soul of his foot, giving him sufficient leverage to hit his father through the pole he would otherwise have bounced off of and into the spring next to it. Landing lightly onto the bank next to the pool Ranma finally took notice of the stranger running up to him.

"Sir get away from the pool! Bad if you fall in, very bad!" The man shouted as he rapidly closed the distance.

Turning to face the man he missed the sudden appearance of a dark shape erupting from the pool and throwing itself across the distance between them with incredible force. Reacting on instinct the younger Saotome attempted to bring up his arms to block the charge, a pale white shield briefly flickering into existence faintly before being brushed aside like nothing and a furry paw hitting him in the side. The force of the strike sent him skidding backwards and into a nearby pool, his last sight of a black grizzly bear standing upright in a pose as if finishing a punch before sky and water covered his vision and he closed his eyes and his world exploded in pain.

As Ranma hit the water of the pool, the magic of Jusenkyo went to work, for ages the ancient forces of the Springs of Sorrow had permutated the valley carrying out the twisted curse that infected the land upon any that were unfortunate or foolish enough to be caught in its trap.

While not sentient in the slightest the curse had encountered many things since it had come into existence and had adapted to counter or work around them within the limits of its corrupted programming quite effectively. When presented with this new target it immediately sought to carry out its task and force a new template onto the being, feeling the fabric of the strange creature of magic that had dropped into its domain it located a pre-loaded yet dormant template that fit the specifications of the spell matrix linked to the spring, the Nyannichuan.

Since it wasn't intelligent the Springs simply choose the path of least resistance that would allow for the operation to be completed. Channelling increasing amounts of mana into the being it eventually managed to awaken the template and attach the activation trigger to it loosely. Up to this point the physical thrashing of the being in the spring had been below its notice and the minor drain on its power only slightly more worthy of attention, when it finally managed to successfully activate the template however the slight drain transformed into a flood as the being grasped hold of the link to the template and sucked the Springs mana through it like a straw.

Had Jusenkyo been alive it might have experienced panic or a cold sensation of death seeping through the link from the being, as it was wasn't alive the sudden drain merely tripped long unused protocols. A huge amount of mana was sent down the link in a single burst, disrupting the drain long enough for the Springs to seal the link though it wasn't able to sever it completely. After this the Springs went to work reconstructing the lost template pool in a separate location.

The change took only a few seconds, the magic of the Springs and the workings of the Book acting faster than the conscious mind could comprehend as the strange battle was fought between the two automated magic's.

On the outside the result was far more spectacular than the normal seamless change that most victims experience. A few moments after Ranma disappeared beneath the water and lost conciseness the spring lit up with a pillar of white light that reached high into the sky before exploding in a dome of black death as the excess mana from the surge that the Spring had sent was dissipated in the quickest manner available.

The watching man and man-turned-bear were thrown backwards by the shockwave that knocked over a number of bamboo sticks and obliterated the Nyannichaun completely. Fortunately the two of them avoided tumbling into any of the other springs, with the help of Jusenkyo in the man's case and Genma developed survival instinct and experience with Happosai in his allowing them both to get away un-curse, or re-cursed in the grizzles case.

As the shockwave dissipated grizzly-Genma focused his gaze onto ground zero of the blast while crouched low to the ground and using his new claws to grip the earth below him for extra traction. With the obscuring light and shadow gone he was able to see a floating white haired woman with closed eyes, an elaborate black uniform and most noticeably of all 4 pitch black wings protruding from the small of her back. The appearance of the strange woman lasted only a few seconds before it disappeared in a flash of white revealing an unconscious Ranma that promptly fell to the earth like a puppet with its strings cut.

Climbing to his feet Genma proceeded to move over to his fallen son in order to check on his condition, after all it wouldn't do if anything permanent had befallen him. Genma had a retirement of leisure and scamming his old friend Soun to look forward to which all relied on the boy.

The man scrambled after the older Saotome trying to explain the situation before they did anything else that might get him killed or worse yet cursed!

A few miles away in 4 different directions several heads snapped up as they took notice of the sudden magical burst of energy. Of those 2 decided to take action immediately, one breaking into a run towards the location of the signal followed by his subordinates while the other called for a meeting and scouts to be sent out towards the sudden event.

After managing to drag the sleeping boy out of the impressive hole that he had inadvertently created in the ancient valleys earth, the pair of older men had relocated to the Chinese mans small hut a short distance from the location of the Saotomes unfortunate meeting with the corrupted magic of Jusenkyo.

The insides of the abode were simple, containing only the very basics for living and the roof leaked in several locations. This didn't stop Genma-grizzly growling in satisfaction at getting into shelter as he moved further into the hut and unceremoniously dumped the un-conscious Ranma onto cold hard footboards to the surprise and stammered protests of the other man.

"Ah customer be careful! Ah young customer seem ok, you wait 1 moment please." The man said as he hurried to check the fallen Saotome before nodding in satisfaction and heading across to the stove in order to heat some water.

While the man faced the stove and waited for the water to boil he began to talk aloud.

"I am Jusenkyo Guide, my family charged with looking over Jusenkyo and stopping unfortunates from being cursed! Much shame to fail I feel but you no listen to my warnings so sirs is now cursed by springs, very tragic. Sir is cursed by Spring of drowned Black Grizzly Bear, tragic story of circus bear that escape only be drowned by springs when it try drink. Young customer falls in Spring of drowned Girl, much tragic story of girl that fall out of sky and drown landing in pool, too tragic story." The self proclaimed guide explained cheerfully as he watched the water and ignored the dull thumps from behind him.

"Customer no worry though curse reversible, cold water turn to bear, hot water make man again so no worry yes! Ah it finished now, WHAT CUSTOMER DO!" The Guide exclaimed as he turned around with 2 glasses of water in his hands only to behold the bear shaking the boy hard and slapping him with a large paw.

"Grrr, gruf, grrr" The bear responded articulately.

"Perhaps this help you sir" The Guide said as he poured half of the glass filled with hot water onto the bear.

"Ha! Hands! Wake up boy!" Genma celebrated as he transformed back into a human before turning back to his son and preparing to start off again where he had left off as a bear only to be stopped by the Guide.

"Please honoured customer let me." He said as he poured the glass of cold water directly onto the younger martial artists face.

Before their eyes the body lying between then seemed to hesitate and the began slowly shifting, the pace of the transformation picking up speed as the younger Saotome shifted from a dark haired young man into the slightly older looking white haired that they had briefly seen before, hovering above the destroyed Spring of drowned Girl. Unlike that time however this version looked far less menacing, lacking the ebony wings or the sinister, if a little silly in the Guides opinion , looking uniform that she had been wearing before. On top of this it was revealed that the woman had blood red eyes as they opened when Ranma sat up, sputtering to clear the water that had got into her mouth and nose.

"Cough, cough. Damn it! Stop trying stupid training techniques on me in my sleep Pops! WHAT THE HELL!?!" Ranma exclaimed as he managed to focus on the present enough to notice the changes he had been put through.

"Sir be calm! Is cursed by Spring of drowned Girl, cold water transform customer into girl but hot water change back! Here, young customer see for self. " The Guide quickly thrust the half full glass of water into the hands of the irate Saotome in the hopes of preventing his hut from suffering the same fate as the unlamented spring.

Taking the glass Ranma quickly splashed himself, like before the transformation seemed to hesitate for a moment before shifting him back to his male form. Patting his chest carefully the magical martial artist turned to look at the guide with a frown.

"What the heck is going on?" He growled with irritation at yet another magical mishap butting into the train wreck that was his life.

"A question that We would also be most interested in learning the answer to Guide." Another voice stated as 3 heads turned towards the door, the Saotomes jumping to their feet and taking defensive stances.

The Figure in the now open doorway merely smiled in amusement at their actions.

"... reboot doesn't seem necessary... "

"... collapsed, just fell to the floor... "

"... Signum knocked down ... "

" ... Wolkenritter, was nothing ..."

"Ohhh, loud. " She complained as she slowly opened her eyes and the world came back into focus.

"ZWEI!"

Authors Note:

Right first chapter is now done hope you enjoyed it. For those curious got watch Nanoha A's Episode 10 to see what armoured Ranma looks like in this chapter.

Thanks to the TFF crew for the inspiration their musing gives me.

Until next time. Shad4c out.


	3. Chapter 2

**Second Night: Reinforce Drei**

(_Nanoha/Ranma X-Over_)

**Disclaimer**- Both Nanoha and Ranma series belong to their respective copyright holders. Not me. This piece of fiction is done solely for entertainment and no profit is made from it in any form.

**Chapter 2**

**One jump forward**

"_When one is of superior quality then no obstacle is too great."_

"_You said that last time, didn't help much."_

"_A pitiful setback Saotome, a Prince looks only forward."_

"_Yeah, that Divine Buster to the ass must be too painful to remember."_

"_Peasant."_

_**Audio record of a conversation between Reinforce Drei aka Ranma Saotome and Prince Herb during joint training exercise **_

As the figure observed the scene that it had walked into, a tense silence stretched between the four people inside of the hut before it was abruptly broken by the Jusenkyo Guide scurrying forward. Hands clasped in front of him the Guide placed himself directly between the figure in the doorway and the two Saotomes that were maintaining their defensive stances and warily observed the figure, particularly the younger whose mouth was partly open in preparation for delivering a blunt challenge towards the stranger.

"Many apologies, no offence is meant, please forgive these customers for this slight your Highness" The Guide carefully said in Japanese so that the Saotomes could understand him before switching to a rapid stream of Mandarin, bowing repeatedly.

"Ignorance can be excused once Guide and I am in a magnanimous mood today so I will allow this to pass." The figure replied as he stepped out of the doorway, roughly pushing the other man aside as he did so.

Strolling into the hut itself the blue and white haired man ignored the two Saotomes and made his way across to the only proper chair in the Spartan home, spinning it around so that it faced the still tense martial artists and gracefully seating himself. An aura of supreme confidence radiated from the warrior as his small amused smile reappeared as he began to address the cursed travellers who had relaxed their guard now that it didn't appear that the stranger was out to get them.

"Ignorance may be excused once, after which it is the responsibility of someone appropriate to correct it. This time I will fulfil that role though it is far below my station. I am Herb, Prince of the Musk Dynasty, Heir to the Dragon Throne and Guardian of the valley of Jusenkyo." The now introduced Prince grandly proclaimed as the Guide hurried to perform various tasks in the background.

"Well that's just great buddy..." Ranma started only for Genma to grab him and cover his mouth in order to prevent the younger Saotome from finishing the sentence.

"I'm sorry, my son and I have spent a lot of time in the wilds training, I'm afraid the boys manors aren't at the same level as his martial skills your Highness. He means that it's an honour to meet one such as yourself, we're unworthy of your time and should have known who you are the moment we saw you. I'll discipline the boy severely your Highness. "Genma practically grovelled as the fine survival senses that he had developed dealing with his own master kicked into overdrive with this man.

Ranmas only response was to bite the offending hand blocking his month and attempt to worm his way out of his father's hold, initiating a small scuffle. Herb continued as if the violence in front of him wasn't happening, accustomed as he was to the occasional stupidity of his own bodyguards.

"Of course you are forgiven, you are strangers here. I did not come here today in order to discuss how you have raised your son but for a more pressing matter. Scouts from my people have recently located a monster on the nearby slopes, since it is the duty of the Prince to protect his people I have decided to seek out the beast and destroy it before it can cause any trouble. I was passing the springs themselves when I felt your auras, though I am more than strong enough to dispatch the beast myself, for the good of my people I would seek insurance towards its destruction. As such you will accompany me and prevent the creature from escaping." The Musk Prince stated with a calm superior air as he accepted a drink that the Guide handed him.

"Well your Highness that is something that normally I would love to help with, however the boy and I have an appointment with an old friend of mine that we really can't miss out on..." Genma began explaining as he tried to wriggle out of anything as dangerous as demon hunting.

"You've been 'blessed' by Jusenkyo I see." Herb interrupted, his smile gaining an edge of cruelty as he watched the bolding Saotome stop I his attempts to talk his way out of the situation as if he had a knife held to his face.

"Well yeah Prince, do you think we'd be here if we weren't." Ranma replied with a frown as he managed to slip out of his father's hold and punch him in the side of the head, knocking the other combatant across the room.

"As the Guide has likely not yet told you the 'blessing' of Jusenkyo is an ancient magic that holds few if any rivals in power and complexity on our world. Finding a way to cure or even control it would be difficult if not impossible for those unfamiliar with the ways of the magical world." The dragon prince explained calmly as he swirled the contents of the glass casually.

"I'll find a way, no stupid curse will beat me." Ranma said.

"Perhaps, miracles do occasionally happen after all. As a prince of a magical kingdom that resides in this region and has done for centuries my people would, of course, know nothing of any cures or methods to control the... effects... of Jusenkyos magic." The Prince said in a bored tone, his eyes hardening with intent.

"You've got a cure!" Both the Saotome shouted simultaneously.

"Perhaps, then again, perhaps not. I know of none personally however my people have lived in this valley for a very long time and some of my ancestors were obsessive collectors of knowledge and magical trinkets. If anyone could find a solution then it is the archivists of the Dynasty. The archives and treasure champers of the Musk are vast and varied with things from all corners of the globe. Of course such services are a difficult and arduous task and could only be performed for one that had proven themselves a friend to the Musk Dynasty." Herb finished explaining before gracefully sipping from the glass.

The two Saotomes looked at each other, one with suspicion and the other with greed.

"Helping you with disposing of this monster would be the friendly thing to do don't you agree Ranma." Genma said with a wide smile.

"So we do this and you have your people look into a cure?" Ranma asked slowly.

"Willingly assisting the heir to the throne would make you a friend of the Musk and we look out for our friends." The armoured prince responded smoothly.

"Fine, how tough can one monster be anyway, let's get this over with." The pigtailed boy proclaimed.

"That's the spirit son, go and show them the might of the Anything Goes School!" The master of the Saotome School proclaimed loudly from where he was now sitting at the table with a flask of sake in his hand.

"You're coming too!" Ranma shouted back as he stomped across to the other martial artist intent on forcing the older Saotome into complying.

As the others were distracted by new battle, Herb allowed his smile to briefly blossom into a cruel smirk before schooling his expression and rising to his feet.

"Only those that help are friends of the Musk, actions are far more important than words. If you have settled your discussion for the moment we will head out, I wish to destroy this menace before nightfall. Come." The Musk Prince ordered as he turned and walked towards the door without looking back.

As the sound of conflict ceased and was replaced by the grumble of assent along with the soft sounds of two pairs of footsteps following in his wake the Prince smile became one of true humour for the first time since he had entered the Guides hut. When he had felt the new power and rushed to the scene his first instinct had been to head to the pitiful Guides abode in case the power had something to do with the Springs.

If he was right about the identity of this new power, he just had to play the fools correctly and he would have valuable tools in the future. If he was wrong, then they would surely make strong breeding stock once Jusenkyo recreated the Nyanniichaun.

Covertly signalling his bodyguards to remain hidden at a distance the dragon descendant lead the wandering martial artists away from the hut, and towards the test that had conveniently appeared, at a rapid pace.

**Mid-Childa**

The sunny and cool weather that the capital of Mid-Childa was enjoying at present had little impact on the mood of the short haired brunette that was sitting outside of a room in the Medical Wing of the Bureaus ground forces headquarters, forced to leave the room while the doctors performed their scans on the 4 patients.

As the door opened she turned her head quickly and partly raised herself from her seat before she remembered the miniature figure currently sleeping on her lap. Settling back down swiftly the Bureau Special Investigator returned the smile the doctor gave her with a strained one of her own.

"Colonel Yagami, you can go in now as we've finished the scans. Your presence would be welcome I'm sure." The older doctor stated as he waved a pad at her.

"Thank you. How are they doing, have you found out what happened to them yet?" Hayate asked with concern as she carefully picked up Reinforce Zwei from her lap, cradling the small unison devise in her hands, and got to her feet.

"From initial tests it appears that they were caught in some sort of power surge, since they weren't braced for it the shock must have been too much for them and knocked them out. That's what happened Colonel, but I'm sure you can sympathize when I say that the _how_ and _why_ parts of a situation are a lot harder to figure out." The doctor commented wirily as he shook his head.

"I understand. Are you sure it's ok for me to go in now." Hayate asked a second time.

"Please, go right on in! Their awake and don't seem to have any problems as a result of that zap, I want to keep them in overnight for observation so I can have the test result gone over by the labs otherwise they could go. The biggest problem is going to be keeping them here, the orange haired firebrand is just about ready to stage an escape attempt." The lab coated man said as he tried to lighten the mood a bit.

"Thank you, excuse me." The mistress of the Tome of the Night Sky said as she slipped past the man and into the hospital room where the four members of the Wolkenritter were resting after having collapsed earlier in the day.

A soft smile came to her as she took in the four members of her strange adopted family as three of them tried their best to get the nurses to agree to releasing them in their own way, be it via calm logic, medical knowledge or shear stubbornness . The picture was completed be the relaxed figure of Zafira, in humanoid form, relaxing on his own bed without a word as he enjoyed the battle of wills around him and chewed on a piece of jerky he had gotten from somewhere.

"The doctor says that you have to stay in the hospital for observation overnight just in case the tests come up with something." Hayate said as she shut the door behind her, causing the Knights to go quiet as they turned to look at her.

The Investigator returned the nurses grateful smiles as she moved deeper into the room and passed them as they left to give her some privacy.

"But we're fine, we don't need to stay in here for a whole night. It takes more than this to take us down, you know that Hayate!" Vita protested as she started to climb out of the bed only to be intercepted by the one she called her mistress as gently pushed back down.

"I do know what it takes to knock you down Vita, that's why I want you all to stay in here like the doctors say. Please Vita, just this once." Hayate softly said as she defused the ticking bomb that was the Iron Knight, causing the smaller girl to grumble loudly but comply.

"That is exactly the reason that we should not stay in here. Finding the source of this should be a priority." Signum said flatly only to lean back a bit as Hayate turned a level gaze on the leader of the Wolkenritter.

"You are staying here tonight, we can figure out what this was after we're sure that it hasn't done harm to any of you." The uniformed brunette stated with a hint of steel in her voice, cutting off any further argument from her companions.

"Since your awake now can you can tell me what happened to you?" The Yagami asked, her voice taking on a more professional tone.

"We've been attempting to puzzle this out as well Hayate. It was a strange yet familiar feeling that rushed threw us." Shamal mused aloud.

"From us" Zafira interrupted, gaining a nod of acceptance from the blond.

"From you? You didn't feel the presence of anyone? A direction?" Hayate probed getting negative gestures in response.

"I felt no hostile presence when the surge came, indeed I felt nothing until it hit which was strange since I was on guard at the time." Signum explained in turn.

"On guard? Why? Was it something in the headquarters?" Hayates mind grasped onto minor fact due to her knowledge of Signum. The woman was always on guard to an extent, for her to mention it meant that she had been actively seeking a threat.

"Yeah now that you mention it there was something, just before I was knocked down a ... pressure... from inside. It was annoying because it was there but it wasn't there." Vita frowned in annoyance at the memory.

"There but not there. Yes that fits, it felt like it was meant to be there but at the same time wasn't a part of me, wasn't meant to be there though not as strongly." Shamal continued for the smaller knight.

"You believe that there may be a connection." The pink haired knight stated with conviction.

"Possibly Signum, we can't rule out anything right know since we don't really know anything yet. Hopefully Reinforce can add something more after I take her in for an in-depth examination." Hayate explained as she looked down at the tiny white haired figure that she was still holding.

"Things are moving again." The only male in the room stated simply.

"That might be so Zafira. I intend to try and get Chrono to push forward the establishment of the special unit, if this is a start of something we need to be ready." The TSAB Colonel said gravely.

"Let them come, doesn't matter who it is we'll take them down." Vita proclaimed aggressively as the others smiled at her antics.

The rest of the brunettes visit was taken up chatting about the various day to day concerns of the group and their future plans for the establishment of Hayates dreamed of unit until the Mistress of the Wolkenritter left to take her smallest follower for her own check up.

It wasn't long before the Knights were once again driving the hospital staff insane with their complaints while they waited for the night to pass.

**Jusenkyo**

The trio of warriors had made good time across the valley towards the location of the monster, helped along by the coded hints that were being left for the Prince by the bodyguard that was scouting ahead of the group. During the journey Herb had taken the opportunity to fill in the two Saotomes with a carefully edited version of the history and politics of the lands of Jusenkyo.

"You were most fortunate that I was in the area in order to meet you, the Guide performs his duties however he is far from the best informed person when it comes to the magic and ways of Jusenkyo. He is also somewhat partisan towards the Amazons, I doubt that you would like them." Herb said as he ran.

"Amazons? Like the Greek ones?" Ranma asked as he bounced over a bush.

"Ah, that is correct, a tribe of aggressive warrior woman." The Prince stated.

A brief laugh came from Genma earning him a apparently understanding look from the dragon prince.

"Quite. Do not dismiss them however, they are powerful fighters in their own right and have an array of very effective techniques at their disposal. They deserve that title, if it were not for their bloodthirsty pettiness I might admire them for these qualities." Herb continued.

"What's that meant to mean?" The younger Saotome asked.

"They have strict laws, ones that they enforce with ruthless efficiency. It matters not whether or not you know of them, should an outsider break them they are killed or taken as 'servants' without exception. In recent years we have taken to avoiding them in hopes of limiting the damage their stubborn ways have on the people of the Dynasty." The Musk heir finished, inwardly satisfied when he noticed the slight frowns on the faces of the two after he looked at them.

A warbling bird cry echoed from the area in front of the fast moving trio followed shortly by a louder roar and a slight rumbling as the source came closer. Instantly the three members of the group were on guard as they came to a stop and then jumped to the sides. From out of the forest in front of them came a large four legged reptilian creature, a large bony set of spikes and cones on its back along with a mass of tentacles.

As Ranma changed direction and charged into attack the revealed monster, Herb grabbed hold of the older Saotome and pointed to the path the monster had came from snapping out an order.

"Circle around the beast and make certain that it is alone, your son and I shall deal with this creature." The blue haired martial artist ordered.

Genma looked between the monster and the dragon prince before nodding his head and taking off, carefully circling around the creature.

Satisfied that the other visitor to the valley wouldn't be interfering in his testing of this potential future soldier Herb set himself and charged at the target of the hunt which was already engaging Ranma. Snapping off a pair of unfocused ki blasts the Prince engaged the monster in earnest, using his superior speed to weave through the wildly swiping maze of tentacles while hitting the beast with punishing blows that caused it to roar in pain.

While Herb was doing this Ranma was having a far more difficult time fighting the strange creature, the unpredictable movements of the tentacles were making it difficult for him to close in on the monster. The difficulty of this was increased by the fact that most of the appendances were located on the top of the monster, therefore negating the aerial advantage that he normally enjoyed in any fight. Constantly kicking off of the small 'platforms' of energy he had learnt to create a little over a year ago, Ranma bounced around the monster in all directions, occasionally finding an opening large enough that he could dart in and land a hit.

This pattern of battle continued for several minutes as the pair wore down their opponent bit by bit until the creature seemed to become enraged by its lack of ability to kill its tormentors. Letting off a mighty roar the beasts tentacle whips suddenly sped up, whipping through the air at incredible velocities. The sudden increase in speed caught the two fighters by surprise allowing the whips to hit them both, the dragon prince was sent flying into a tree where he used his ki to land softly before hiding his presence and watching the events that were about to take place. Ranma wasn't so fortunate having been in mid air and been knocked across the clearing while making an unpleasant discovery.

It had hurt.

It had hurt like it used to hurt before the incident three years ago.

Over the last couple of years the younger Saotome had gotten used to the increase toughness that he had enjoyed since the incident in the warehouse. Normal blows weren't even felt unless his father charged then with his Ki. To have an attack which didn't seem to have any extra Ki pumped into actually hurt was a nasty surprise and caused his heart to start racing at the implications. As he recovered from the blow he refocused his gaze on the suddenly far more formidable creature, eyes widening as three of the cones on its back lit up and unleashed a trio of yellow beams directly towards him.

Crossing his arms in front of himself he summoned up all the power he could grasp and thrust it forward into a barrier. Instead of the controlled trickle of power he had trained so hard to bring forward a veritable flood of power erupted from within. A purple formless shield materialised in the path of the beams, briefly stopping them in their tracks effortlessly before Ranma lost control of the new geyser of power coming from within causing the shield to collapse. Fortunately for the bewildered Saotome most of the destructive force of the beams had been spent on the shield before it collapsed meaning that when they struck him all that they manage to do was burn a hole in his shirt and knock him onto his ass.

Rolling into a crouch the Saotomes luck proved poor once again as a swarm of tentacle whips screamed in from nearly all directions.

Staring death in the face, Ranmas senses went into overdrive, searching for a gap to exploit, something that would allow him to get the hell out of the way!

Catching a hint of the slimmest of opening the younger Anything Goes practitioner dashed for the sliver of hope. He moved faster than he had even moved before, blurring to the untrained eye, only to realise that it wouldn't be enough. Knowing that he wasn't fast enough, knowing that he wouldn't make it but having no choice but to make it. Digging deeper than he ever had, Ranma pulled out more power than he ever had, reached for more speed than he had ever possessed.

As the tentacles closed and Ranma took his next step his mind and body suddenly felt as if they had been both dipped into an arctic river and electrocuted accompanied by a sharp stab of intense pain directly into his brain. Yet when his foot hit the ground the world seemed to sharpen and he knew what to do, how to get the speed he needed. His voice whispered in a tone he had never used.

"Sonic Move"

As he said this, the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl, the whips of flesh that had seemed so impossible to dodge now barely moving at all. Moving forward the martial artist weaved through the maze of tentacles with ease as he rushed towards the creature and delivered a flying kick to its head, sending it skidding backwards, before the world seemed to speed up once again.

As this event happened Herb smiled in satisfaction.

Leaping out of the dead tree the dragon prince hefted a large mana energy sword and charged at the monster one more time.

"Saotome, hold it!" The Musk heir shouted at the slightly zoned out martial artist as the monster brought its tentacles back in an attempt to defend itself.

"Struggle Bind" Was Ranmas response, still seeing the world with strange clarity, as purple chains rose out of the ground and grasped the monster, holding in immobile.

With a mighty swing Herb cut the squat monster in half lengthwise, instead of it falling into two pieces the creature faded out leaving a glowing blue jewel in its place. Before Ranma could ask about it a dark blurr shot from the side of the clearing and caused the jewel to vanish along with it.

"What... hey!" Ranma shouted as the world returned to normal, the strange clarity he had enjoyed previously fading out.

"Fear not Saotome, it is merely one of my men. He is specially trained to deal with the dangerous remains of monsters like this one, come let us find your father and return to the Musk so that we may celebrate this victory." Herb quickly declared heading out of the clearing to the location that his bodyguards were meant to trap the older Saotome.

"... fine. Let's go find the old man." Ranma grumbled as he allowed himself to be lead away from the battlefield, his mind distracted by the strange event that had occurred to him.

In the bushes nearby a person lay prone to the ground, bleeding hand gripping the pommel of a dagger as they watched the battle between the Musk Prince and the jewel monster. Once the two victorious combatants left the area the person slipped away to provide a personal report to their elder, remote viewing not being a hundred percent accurate in situations such as this.

**Authors Note:**

Ok, 1 more chapter in the Jusenkyo setup arc then off to Nerima with a hop-timeskip :P .


	4. Chapter 3

**Second Night: Reinforce Drei**

_(__Nanoha/Ranma X-Over)_

**Disclaimer**- Both Nanoha and Ranma series belong to their respective copyright holders. Not me. This piece of fiction is done solely for entertainment and no profit is made from it in any form.

**Forming Question**

_"This is absolutely the** last** time I let that ferret talk me into doing field research for him!"_

_"Less talk, more fight!"_

**_-Reinforce Drei, during Lost Legia archeological expedition to Un-Administered world 331._**

As the sky turned dark the Guide wisely limited his regular patrols of the cursed land to the specially warded and more physically distant paths around the springs themselves, despite being somewhat protected from the magic of the springs that drew it's victims in because of his bloodline some previous Guides had been unfortunate enough to fall prey to the springs they warded, after seeing what it had cursed his grandfather with the Guide had no desire to risk such a fate.

This was a habit that a new pair of visitors took advantage of in order to quietly slip into the valley of springs itself while using the lingering haze of magic from the destruction of the Spring of Drowned Girl combined with the general interference from the springs themselves in order to mask their presence from the local tribes. Moving carefully to the edge of the destruction that Ranma had caused earlier, one of the women crouched down and softly touched the ground before her with a gloved hand.

"This is it huh?" The woman asked quietly, her body tense despite their stealthy entrance.

"Yes." The other woman stated dully as she hovered slightly off of the ground next to her ground bound companion, the full body cloak wrapped around her shifting in the breeze.

"I'll take your word for it partner, I'm no good with the subtle things when it comes to magic. Must have been quite a light show though, wish I could have seen it." The woman said in a offhand tone as she reached around behind her back and pulled a device out and waved it at her partner. "Do you want me to do this now?"

"Yes, it would not be advisable to remain here longer than necessary. Proceed to retrieve the sample." The cloaked member of the pair said once again in a dead voice.

Nodding in response the bodysuit clad woman tapped the device carefully and then held it flat in her palm, watching as it unfolded and hovered momentarily before taking off and headed into the center of the recent mystical surge in order to get the samples the duo wanted while they remained at a safe distance.

"Hopefully it's as fast as the doctor claims, I don't know about you partner but this place gives me the creeps" The ground bound intruder stated as she shivered momentarily and reached back to grip her weapon lightly.

"Yes." Was her partners response.

Looking away from their target to gaze at her magical partner the woman frowned.

"Yes it's as fast as the doctor claimed or yes this place freaks you out as well partner?" She asked.

"Both. It is dangerous to remain within an unknown magical nexus for extended periods of time therefore speed was factored in during planning." The cloaked mage stated flatly without turning to acknowledge the questioner.

"Right, I should have guessed that by now." The armed woman said wirily as she shifted her attention back to their surrounding, searching for any incoming threats.

The duo stood in silence for several minutes before the small drone rose up and zipped back towards them, landing nearly in the outstretched palm of the body suited woman. Smiling at the small drone briefly she then switched it back to storage mode and clipped it behind her back once more.

"All done." She stated confidently.

"We will withdraw to a safe distance and then signal for extraction. Initiating withdraw now." The cloaked woman stated softly as she moved towards her colleague and grabbed onto her now outstretched arms.

"Then let's get out of here, just look out for the trees on the way this time sugar." The new passenger said as the pair took off her brown hair streaming behind her before the two disappeared in a haze of magic.

* * *

As night had closed in the trio of monster hunters consisting of Prince Herb and the Saotomes, accompanied by a discrete escort of Musk warriors moving with them from the shadows of the valley, arrived at the citadel of the Musk. A grand fortification built along the slope of the mountains surrounding the cursed land itself, its ancient wall showing marks of the many battles that it had endured in the name of the people that ruled it over the ages despite the careful maintenance of its inhabitance.

The Saotomes had little time to gawk at the sight as they were swiftly surrounded by heavily armed guards and escorted through the streets of the town towards the central castle, the throngs of people parting in front of them smoothly as the exotic array of Musk inhabitance paid their respects to the heir of the Musk Dynasty when he passed. Even when the battered and confused Saotomes, though grinning widely in the case of the elder of the pair, finally reached the castle itself the metaphorical whirlwind didn't end as the Dragon Prince disappeared and elaborately dressed servants politely but firmly usurer the now loudly protesting pair of martial artists into a small but sophisticated room.

Any further protests from the two warriors were temporarily stalled as more servant carrying trays of food entered the room from a side door and placed them down in front of the hungry Saotomes and while inviting them to eat. An offer of free food was something that the Anything Goes practitioners had never been ones to turn down and the two ate their way through a steadily stream of local delicacies over the following hour until the main doors opened once more admitting the Prince, this time dressed in court clothing having taken the time to change and give orders to some of his subordinates.

"I trust all is satisfactory, my cooks are the best in the Kingdom after all. Such a service as you have provided to the Musk does not go unrewarded." Herb greeted the eating pair as he crossed the room to sit opposite them, carefully keeping the balance of equality and power that he had been crafting between them instead of taking a more… appropriate position.

The Saotomes nodded and made abortive attempts to speak as they ate, causing their host to grimace internally and mentally remind himself of why he was putting up with the uncultured duo.

"It's great, haven't been this full in a while." Ranma answered honestly though he was referring less to the food itself then to the thick haze of energy that permutated the air of the castle and flowed into him, his body unconsciously drawing in the ambient mana of the area put off by the many wards and spells weaved into the fortresses walls.

"Excellent you're Highness, truly nothing less than the perfection that you expect to be served to royalty such as yourself." Genma fawned between bites.

"Excellent, I am glad that you feel that way. If you have had your fill for the moment perhaps I might turn your attention to other matters, such as what we discussed earlier." Herb said, deciding that a certain amount of directness was necessary with his present guests.

"Right, you said something about a cure in some place here? Where is it? I've got to start looking right now!" The younger Saotome sprung to his feet as he proclaimed this fact loudly.

"And you are an expert in reading the ancient tongues that the tomes which reside in the archives are written in?" The Musk Prince stated calmly only to be slightly shocked when the elder of the two nodded and his son shrugged as he sat down again.

"Depends want type of old scribbles it is, some things I can read, others I can't. It's a weird talent I picked up a couple of years ago. Shame some idiot didn't show me the pamphlet for Jusenkyo before we came here, stupid old man." Ranma said with confused pride before turning and scowling at his father.

"I'm your father boy. I've been training in the Art since before you were born and my great instincts for the Art lead us to this excellent training opportunity!" Genma sputtered with false indignation.

"So you admit that this is all your fault!" the pigtailed boy growled dangerously only for his father to wave it off airily.

"Any sacrifice is worth it in the name of the Art boy!" The larger martial artist replied as he glared back.

"Interesting. I also assume that you can find the relevant volumes among the thousands that are kept there, can deactivate the protective spells and of course are willing to cut out your own tongue in accordance with the oaths given by any archivist before they are allowed beyond the gates so they may never speak of the secrets that they learn?" Herb said smoothly as he interrupted the Saotomes squabbling and carefully memorized the extra knowledge about the youngers abilities. The Dynasty had a number of Tomes in lost languages amongst the archives and such ability could come in useful after his loyalty had been firmly established.

This caused the princes guests to go quiet and deflate as they realized the task that they would be setting themselves.

"Such can be left to the archivists, for the moment let us formalize our friendship." The smiling prince said as he raised his hands and sharply clapped twice.

From the side door a beautiful girl emerged, causing Genma to look at his son in alarm, carrying a tray with two crystals on it. Gracefully navigating her way across the room she placed in between the three before bowing deeply to Herb, smiling at Ranma and making her way out of the room once more as silently as she had entered. Reaching forward the prince gestured to the crystals.

"In recognition of your friendship I grant you these crystals, prick yourselves so that you bleed on them and it will key you into the wards of the castle, identifying you as a friend of the Musk and welcome here. Once active they will also act as a means of communication, merely focus your energy into it and picture the person you wish to speak with and it will be so. It will allow me to keep you updated on the latest information about the search for your cure as it is given to me as long as you carry in on your person." The dragon descendant explained as the pair each picked up a crystal and carefully pricked themselves, turning the crystals themselves from white to red in response to its activation.

Clapping sharply three times a small group of servants entered the room and began to clear away the empty dishes and leftovers from the meal, what little there was after the two Saotome vacuums had gotten through with it.

"You must be tired after the events of today, I have arranged for rooms to be put assigned to you tonight. Please treat them as your own, tomorrow I will have a servant show you around the grounds." The prince stated.

"Ahhh, forgive me your Highness but I'm afraid that tomorrow we must leave. There is an important matter of honor that we have to attend to. I beg your forgiveness your Highness." Genma groveled, going into the dreaded crouch of the wild tiger and dragging a protesting Ranma down with him.

"That is a shame, still honor should be maintained. I must insist that you spend the night as my guests though as is tradition among my people. If you must leave in the morning then I will hold you no longer." Herb said with a regretful smile as he gestured to the servants to lead the Saotomes to their rooms.

"Thank you, your Highness. My apologies, your Highness." Genma shuffled backwards out of the room while bowing and forcing his son to do the same.

As the door shut behind the pair, Herbs smile turned from regretful to calculating as he continued to look at the door while seeing something completely different.

"Are you sure letting them leave is wise my Prince? If you have gone through such pains to get them here would it not be more prudent to keep them close at hand so that we may work at securing their service?" One of the remaining servants said carefully.

"And have my father getting a claw into the boy? No, that's not something I am willing to risk. I see now that the boy doesn't truly know his own power, we have time on our side in this as long as we move carefully. I will bind him to me as his power grows, the bonds will be stronger this way and he will be far more useful to me free of the snares that will be set for him here." The Musk heir stated coldly as he continued to contemplate.

"Then I shall make the arrangements that are required to search the archives with your servants among the archivists. I assume you wish their leave-taking to me a silent one my Prince." The same servant said diffidently.

"See to it, as long as we have something to feed them regularly it matters not if they succeed. They may even stumble onto something interesting in the search. Go, I will be retiring for the night now." Herb said as he rose and headed for the door while the servants around him bowed.

Pulling a deep red crystal from his robes the prince smiled with satisfaction. The crystals he had given the required concentrated magic to work, something that the elder didn't seem to have thereby sparing him the man's pathetic groveling. Unknown to the Saotomes they also acted as homing beacons, allowing him to find his future warrior when he wanted him. Placing the crystal back into his pocket the powerful prince made his way towards his room.

* * *

Across the valley from the fortress of the beast people of the Musk later that night a ring of old women sat in a circle around a large campfire. Just out of hearing distance the elite of the Amazons warriors circled the small clearing keeping any potential intruders away from the impromptu meeting while the Elders of the tribe listened to the report of a kneeling young woman describe the battle she had seen earlier.

"You are certain of what you saw young one. The Musk has many tricks in their arsenal with which to bend the truth at their whim." One of the Elders asked the scout as the council considered what they had just been told.

"Yes Elder. The heir of the Musk and a foreign boy battled and defeated a rock beast, of this I swear I have not been fooled." The green haired scout stated while looking at the ground.

A general rustle of cloth followed this announcement as the assembled leaders of the Amazon nation considered this information. As the seated group collected their thoughts, the Elder sitting closest to the scout turned to address the rest of her peers.

"I was witness to this battle through the Blood Sight, I attest to my villagers' truthfulness in this matter. If she has been fooled by the trickery of the beastmen then I must share the shame." The Elder said in support of the scout.

"The battle itself is not in question here. You may leave now warrior." One of the Elders furthest from the scouts position stated gaining a respectful nod from the younger Amazon before she disappeared into the night.

"The question is why the Prince needed the help of this outsider with a mere weak rock beast, help from a stranger so close to the time of that mystical upsurge at the cursed springs?" An Elder to the right stated confidently.

"It could be connected… Such would be troubling. We know little about what caused the damage to the springs, if it could be this boy and he has sided with the Musk then the future has grown more perilous once more. We should force the Guide to tell us the identity of the strangers." An Elder on the left replied causing a explosion of protest as the group began arguing intently.

"Silence." The head of the council said quietly while tapping her staff on the ground and releasing a faint wave of Ki through the ground.

At once the voices in the clearing became silent and all eyes turned towards the speaker as she began to address the assembled leaders of their people.

"We cannot question the Guide in such a manor, to do so would break the treaties our ancestors signed with the other powers and dishonor us all. While it is true that if this stranger has sided with the Musk we will have gained a powerful new enemy such a transformation cannot be done in a single day. He is a stranger, we do not know what drives him or his past." Cologne said calmly.

"Then what do you propose that we do? Spy on them? The Musk are certain to notice one of our tracker teams missing from the field should we send them after this new mystery." The Elder sitting next to Cologne stated.

"It was Herb that fought with the stranger and not his father King Cold, it is un-likely that the young prince will risk allowing such a potential to be snatched away from him and so I do not believe the outsiders will remain in the valley for long. No, he will send them away some where he can still contact them but out of reach of the forces here in the valley, the Prince is powerful yet he still has too much to learn before he cannot be predicted." The head of the council said with complete conviction.

"That does little to change the situation, in or out of the valley the same thing will happen." The same Elder that replied earlier spoke up once again.

"A team would be missed, yes. A single warrior however would not be so easily tracked, particularly one that would be leaving the valley at this time anyway. My grand-daughter has finished the second stage training in both the Soul and the Blood, she has chosen to venture out into the world beyond Jusenkyos protection, choosing the Way of the Path instead of the Way of the Blood or of the Soul as her warrior coming of age trial. If her wandering in the outside world parallels that of the outsiders then it will draw far less attention." Cologne said with pride at her descendants' choice and accomplishments clear in her voice.

After this statement the fire lit clearing drew quiet once again as the assembled ki and magic masters dropped into meditation, aligning themselves with the world around them without the confusion of the buzz created in their villages by its people, searching for the best path forward from this point. After a time the group slowly came out of their trances one by one.

"Very well, we shall give your descendant this mission as part of her trail. If she fails in this task then punishment will fall on you both." The Elder seated to Colognes right stated, feeling the pulses of confirmation coming from her fellow council members.

"Very well. As head of the council I now call this meeting to a close. We should get back to our villages before the youngsters do anything that we cannot undo." Cologne stated with humor causing a ripple of chuckles.

A moment later the clear was empty except for a slowly dying fire.

* * *

When the light of the morning sun reached the land of magical springs the wandering pair of martial artists were already far from their previous comfortable location, resting in the lap of luxury within the best rooms that royalty could provide along with all of the accompanying extravagances of such a lifestyle. They had been woken up by servants several hours earlier and hustled out of the fortress bearing packs full of travel supplies and, in Genmas case, several small gems in order to retrieve his full co-operation in leaving the home of the Dynasty quietly.

Since then they had been walking in a general easterly direction at the command of the older Saotome, retracing their steps as they made their way out of the hidden land and back towards Japan. Their trek had so far been characterized be Genmas lamenting over his sons' lack of respect and Ranmas complaints about having to leave before breakfast was served, a complaint Genma would have been agreeing with if he hadn't already quietly broken into their supplies and helped himself to a snack while his pupil was distracted.

As Ranmas stomach grumbled once again the smell of cooking wafted into his nose just as they two Saotomes caught sight of a small tent by the side of the path up ahead. Quickening their pace because of the lure of food Ranma passed his father and called out to the campsite.

"Hey there!" Ranma shouted before Genma smacked him around the head.

From the site the occupant turned his blond head away from the small cooker he was using and looked in the direction of the shout, raising his hand in welcome as a reply. When the Saotomes reached the camp they exchanged greeting and upon receiving permission from the occupant of the impromptu home, proceeded to dump themselves on the ground nearby as they decided to take a short rest before continuing on.

"Here, it looks like you might need this" The blond man dressed in hiking gear said kindly as he came over to the Saotomes with a pair of glasses filled with water.

"Thanks" Ranma said as he took his glass without incident.

Genma wasn't so lucky as the man stumbled on the uneven ground, sending the contents onto the sitting Anything Goes Master. The blond man froze in astonishment as both of the Saotome groaned, Genmas coming out as a low growl in his animal form. Ranma opened his mouth in order to explain the strange situation they had found themselves in when the man grabbed the grizzly-fied Genmas paw and started talking quickly.

"What an amazing transformation, I didn't hear a mantra or see a circle. How long did it take you to internalize the magical sequences?" The man asked as Genma pulled out a sign from stuff space bearing a couple of question marks.

"Huh? You aren't surprised? It's not like a fat old man turns into a fat old bear every day?" Ranma asked in confusion as the man mutter what appeared to the pigtailed boy to be nonsense while staring at his cursed father.

"Well you could say I'm used to things like this. I'm Yuuno Scrya, mage and magical archeologist, it's a pleasure to meet you" The blond said with a smile as he addresses Ranma causing the two cursed fighters to perk up.

'Mage?' Genma-bears sign read.

"That's right. I'm not the strongest but I get by. I'd be interested to know how you performed such a smooth transformation, I didn't feel even the slightest flux of magic when it happened." Yuno relied as he pulled out a small book and began writing notes in it.

"It's a curse! Stupid exploding springs." Ranma protested, drawing Yuunos attention once again.

"Curse? How did he get it?" The mage said.

"Yeah, well it's like this…" The younger Saotome began to lay out a slightly edited version of the last few days, leaving out his own curse and the encounter with the monster. A death glare at his father convinced the other martial artist to agree to the pigtailed fighters revised series of events.

"So the spring [i]exploded [/i] when you hit it?" The defensive mage said in alarm.

"Yeah, that was really freaky. The Guide said that it would fix itself after a while but the locals sure were ticked off, we decided to get the hell out of there quick, don't think they'll be too welcoming to strangers anytime soon." Ranma lied nervously hoping to prevent the man from heading into the valley and discovering about his own curse.

"I was hoping to study this place but if it's been damaged as you say then it might be too dangerous at the moment. These curses sound fascinating." Yuuno said as he frantically wrote in his notebook.

'Not if you have to live with it' Genma-bear held up a sign behind the mage as he clumsily tried to use the cooker in order to heat up some water in order to change back.

"If I could study it, maybe a reference …" the mage muttered to himself.

These words caught the two cursed people attention as they locked eyes and conveyed a single word to each other. As Genma dumped the hot water over himself.

'Cure!'

"Well why didn't you say so! I have a curse right here that you can study and I'll even through in a guided tour of the country, you don't look like the travelling type so let an old pro like me help you out! No need to thank me! Boy, pack this up and let's get moving!" Genma boasted loudly as he slapped the slender man on the back repeatedly, causing him to stumble forward.

"On it pop!"

"Wait, I'm not… I mean I don't…" The startled mage tried to protest weakly as the Saotomes ignored him.

"We're burning daylight. Boy! Finish up and let's move out! To the east!" Genma proclaimed as he forced his victim to turn to the east and gestured grandly.

"My breakfast…" Yuuno whimpered as he was dragged off by Genma, the other Saotome trailing behind them as the new trio continued towards the east and out of Jusenkyo.

Authors Note:

Another one bites the dust :) . Leaving Jusenkyo, on the road we go.


End file.
